Poem: To a Tree

Recited by author Tim Armour at the Tree Society of Creemore’s Food and Foliage fundraising dinner at Station on Nov. 3.

A maple pined that ne’er it might

Inspire a poet’s heart to write.

A stunted sapling rooted down

In shade beneath a forest’s crown.

Until one day there came a man

With a shovel and a different plan.

He toiled long and hard that day

To excavate the earth away.

Then roots exposed to open air,

He yanked that young tree out of there

And carried it back to his home

Where soil was deep and rich in loam.

Its roots once more beneath the earth,

That little sapling saw rebirth.

With full sunshine to utilize

It now could photosynthesize.

Stretching skyward with its boughs

Its rootlets delved to water dowse.

In time that tree grew strong and tall

With foliage rich to shade us all.

The family pets that passed away

Were laid to earth beneath its sway.

With boughs upraised as if in prayer

It hands their souls into God’s care.

Each autumn as the days grow short

A crimson mantle it will sport.

As winter ends and snows retreat

Then flows its sap so clear and sweet.

Does any other life exist

So typifying the altruist?

So much it gives without demand

I wish that when my time’s at hand

My body could be laid to rest

Beneath that tree I love the best.